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Angels to hire Jerry Dipoto as general manager

October 28, 2011 | 9:48
am

The Angels will hold a news conference Saturday to announce the hiring of Jerry Dipoto as their new general manager, according to people familiar with the search process but who are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The hiring was first reported Friday morning by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

Angels vice president of communications Tim Mead, citing Major League Baseball's desire for teams to refrain from making announcements during the World Series, would neither confirm nor deny the news. Game 7 between the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals is scheduled for Friday night.

"We will be having a press conference Saturday regarding the GM position," Mead said. "But today and tonight, our attention and focus is directed toward the World Series."

Dipoto, who spent the past six seasons in the Arizona Diamondbacks' front office, replaces Tony Reagins, who resigned two days after a season in which the Angels finished 10 games behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West and out of the playoffs for the second straight year.

In being named the Angels’ 11th GM in franchise history, Dipoto, 43, beat out a list of finalists that included former Dodgers GM Dan Evans, former New York Mets GM Omar Minaya, former Dodgers assistant GM Kim Ng, assistant GMs Rick Hahn (Chicago White Sox) and Thad Levine (Texas) and New York Yankees professional scouting director Billy Eppler.

Dipoto, who also interviewed for the Baltimore Orioles’ GM job, was Arizona’s senior vice president of scouting and player development, a position in which he oversaw all of the club’s scouting efforts, including the evaluation of players at all levels.

After an eight-year big league pitching career that ended in 2001 because of a bulging disc in his neck, Dipoto served two seasons (2003-2004) as a scout for the Boston Red Sox and one (2005) as the Colorado Rockies’ director of player personnel.

Dipoto joined the Diamondbacks as their vice president of player personnel in 2006 and took over as interim GM when Josh Byrnes was fired in 2010.

It was Dipoto's call to trade pitcher Dan Haren to the Angels in July 2010 for a package that included pitcher Joe Saunders and highly regarded pitching prospect Tyler Skaggs.

He also dealt pitcher Edwin Jackson to the Chicago White Sox for pitcher Daniel Hudson, who played a prominent role in Arizona’s surprise run to the National League West title in 2011.

Dipoto interviewed for the permanent GM job and remained with the Diamondbacks even though Kevin Towers was hired instead.

As a pitcher, DiPoto, a right-hander, went 27-24 with a 4.05 earned run average and 49 saves in 390 appearances with the Cleveland Indians, New York Mets and Rockies from 1993-2000.

He was a third-round pick of the Indians out of Virginia Commonwealth University in 1989.